Trashy Snowmen

Over at Stampin Links to Love, Theresa issued a challenge titled "Trash to Treasure" last week. Here is my take on it. The frame around the snowmen is from the library cards we give at work. It's a coated plastic frame that the card was punched out from. The acetate window is also recycled - from clear stamp packaging. I will try to get a better photo tomorrow in daylight - I couldn't use the flash because of the glare and the colors aren't right in this picture...

The snowman image is from Winter Wishes, part of the Kim Hughes Collection at CHF. The sentiment is from CHF, Hugs and Kisses from Kim Hughes. The snowman on the right is the original image, and the one on the left was stamped onto acetate and then pressed onto the paper to get them facing each other. I colored them with my white Prismacolor pencil to make them stand out a little more. Their eyes and buttons and arms are traced with my black glaze pen and their noses are colored with an orange gel pen. The snow is Martha Stewart white glitter, and I think I used a little too much! Of course, the paper is from the Holiday Slab IV. I WILL use up all that paper with my Christmas cards this year!!

I hope everyone is having a good start to the week. Take care and thanks for looking!

ETA: I updated the photo with one taken this morning in natural light - what a difference!

Wow! I Actually Did A WSC...

Each Friday, I look longingly at Beate's Weekend Sketch. This weekend, I decided to tackle it. DH travels a lot, and in the fall his schedule gets especially busy. I think I'll tuck this into his suitcase on one of his next trips to let him know we miss him.The base is River Rock, and all the dp is from Making Memories Travel embellishment paper pad from Target. The airplane is from Toy Box, colored with Prismacolor pencils and blended. The scalloped and regular circles are cut from Nestabilities. The Rick Rack is American Crafts, from the clearance bin at Michael's.

I think this makes a great masculine card. I didn't have a matching sentiment (was hoping for Safe Travels or Bon Voyage), so I left one off. I can't believe another weekend is done. Sadly, I will miss World Card Making Day next weekend, but it's for a good cause! I will be walking in the Avon Walk for Breast Cancer in NYC. 39 miles over 2 days to raise money for breast cancer research. If you would like to make a donation, please go HERE to my participant page!

Thanks for looking!

CPS #83!!

On Friday mornings, I spend a little time cleaning up my craft room so that when I get home from work, I can dig right in. DH picks up DS from school, so I don't have that extra time spent traveling. Dinner is easy on Fridays - DS gets his treat of chicken nuggets and french fries, and DH and I have pizza takeout. So no cooking for me means more craft time!

So tonight I spent my time creating a card for the CPS Sketch #83. Sponsored by Clear Artistic Stamps, and I even had some of them to use :)

I used Sweet Peach Garden and Basic Grey Perhaps papers. It was fun to make this last summery card before I tackle the Halloween treats for DS's class! I colored the images with my Prismacolor pencils, blended, and used my Nesties to cut the circles. The sentiment is Verve.

On a side note, I've been populating my Facebook page. What a rush of nostalgia that brings on! If you are interested in joining my circle of friends, stop by my Facebook page (Melissa Schabel). Have a great weekend, and thanks for looking!

Happy Birthday - TechnoStamper Style!

I sat down tonight to make a few birthday cards, and decided to use this week's TechnoStamper Monday Lunchtime Sketch as the guide for the first one. Let me just say that I do love this sketch, but ovals are the bane of my existence! I'm ready to jump online and order the oval nesties to make my life easier. Too bad I've decided to cut back on my spending for a while...

This card will go to my SIL (hope you're not reading this, Chris!). The paper is DCVW Spring Stack, the solid layers are Marigold Morning and the images are from MFT Icing on the Cake (cupcakes and candles) and Hanna Stamps Tis the Season (presents). All images were colored with my Bic Mark It markers. The center cupcake is Stickled and the cherries are Ruby Red Liquid Pearls. The brads are Queen and Co.

Have a good night! Thanks for looking!

Who Doesn't Love Snowmen??

When I saw that Allison's Suggestive Sunday theme was to use snowmen this week, I was very excited. I picked up Flaky Friends earlier this summer (finally!) and have a bunch of these images colored and ready to be transformed into Christmas cards. I just love them so much, I don't care that they are retired.



I used dp from the Christmas Stack (also from last year - thanks again, Cindy!) There are so many great papers in this stack, I love that they incorporate blue and not just red and green. I cut two patterns on the diagonal to make the background, then mounted the image on red and blue I had lying around. The red might be Bazzill, but I'm not sure about the blue... The hearts of the snowmen are layered with Ruby Red Liquid Pearls and I used puffy paint for the snow and earmuff and hat details on the snowmen. The vellum snowflake is attached with a crystal brad and the sentiment is a 3-d sticker, also from Cindy!

I hope you enjoy this card as much as I do. It makes me smile to look at those 5 snowmen, even if I despise winter!

Have a good night and thanks for looking!

Happy Fall!

Since my blog counter is on it's way to recording the SLOWEST blog traffic since I started this blog, I thought it was time to tackle some challenges. This month has gotten away from me and I have not been crafting as much as I would like to. Thanks to those who keep coming back! Send some friends! Or if there's something missing here, let me know in comments :)

Thursday's challenge at Stamping Links to Love was from Jennifer, and was to make a card that had 5 leaves showing on it. Here's my Fall card to fit the requirements:

The leaves are Cuttlebug Dies, and I went over them with prismacolor pencils for veins and inked the edges with some chalk inks. The sentiment is Greetings 4 U stamped in Really Rust. I paper pierced and sponged the sentiment panel and added some Dew Drops to the brown twill. DP is Frances Meyer East India, which is my favorite fall paper. The colors are gorgeous and I love the pattern. I used it a ton last fall, and found another sheet in my stash! The card is big - 9x4 which is a size I hardly ever make, but I needed the size for the leaves.

Happy Fall (only a day late)! Thanks for looking!

A Birthday Blast

I've mentioned previously how many birthdays we have in the month of September. You'd think I'd be glued to my stamping desk to crank them out (most are at the end of this week!), but I'm wiped out from last week at work still. And to top things off, I also was sick on Saturday after my practice walk. Ended up in bed for the day, unable to keep anything down. Sunday was spent catching up on laundry, etc. that I missed doing Saturday. You know how it goes!

This card is for DS's friend who is celebrating this weekend. I used the DCWV mat stack, and the Pun Fun stamp set. I added some star eyelets and punched the red panel with my star punch to let the silver (DCWV Metallic stack) show through. I colored the rocket with my Bic Mark It! markers and added some Spica glitter pen. The birthday sentiment is from Greetings 4 U.

OK, time to make more birthday cards. I hope you all had a good Monday and enjoyed the first day of FALL! Thanks for looking :)